Where do UK clinicians find information at the point of care? A pragmatic, exploratory study.

Abstract

Aim: To describe where clinical information is contemporarily and commonly found in UK primary care, what is favoured by clinicians, and whether this is (1) publicly funded (2) has commercial potential conflicts of interest.

Design and setting: A mixed methods study, consisting of (1) site visits to general practices in Scotland, (2) online questionnaire, focused on UK general practice (3) analysis of materials cited by professionals.

Methods: Data about sources of clinical information used was obtained verbally, visually and via search histories on computers from visits. This was used to inform a questionnaire in which primary care clinicians in the four nations of the UK were invited to participate. This obtained data about the information sources used and preferred by clinicians. This information was searched for data about funding and conflicts of interest.

Results: Over 2022, four practices were visited. 337 clinicians, 280 of whom were general practitioners completed an online questionnaire. 136 different resources were identified. These were mainly websites but sources of information included colleagues, either in practice or through online networks, apps, local guidelines, health charities, and learning resources aimed at GPs. Of these, 70 were not publicly funded, and were a mixture of membership organisations, charities, or sponsored venues.

Conclusions: Primary care clinicians obtain information for themselves and patients from a wide variety of sources. Funding is from a variety of sources and some contain advertising and/or sponsorship, risking commercial bias.

Protocol: Pre-published at https://osf.io/wrzqk .